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Organized by Harry F. Ward in 1952 at the suggestion of Methodist pastor, Lee Ball (who was largely reacting to the McCarthyism of the times), the RFC had a national membership of lay people and clergy pledged to work to maintain free exercise of religion as granted by the Bill of Rights. The national executive committee of the RFC consisted of thirty-five and an administrative committee of seventeen consisted of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish members who were both black and white. The steering committee which was the true energizing force of the RFC included Ward, Ball, Richard Morford (long-time director of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship), and William Howard Melish, an Episcopal priest. The lawyer of the group was Royal France, whose wife, Ruth, was an active admirer of Ward.

This series contains two items that, because of size and subject, do not fit easily into any of the other series. The two items are a religious instructional book given to the Link family in 1944 by Clarence V. Hourell and the 1979 plaque awarded to Link by the International Who's Who of Education.